World Of Fire (Arula: Five)

Chapter 9

The desert sun was not kind to the travelers as they made their way through the scorched earth. By the afternoon and early evenings, the sun followed them. Karma was thankful for the protective cloth veils they wore on their heads to protect them from the harsh sun and desert sands. It was also a good thing that they took the hormels that they rode instead of the horses and ryder wolf. The hormels were much like the Overworld's camels. They were built for heat and sand, but they were also like horses. They were speedy and strong, getting across the desert took little effort for the beasts. Which made the heat a little tolerable for its riders.

Though poor Dagner struggled during the first few hours of riding. His stubby legs had trouble getting a grip on the sides and it made riding very uncomfortable. Not only that, but Karma and the others had to help Dagner up on the creature. He was too short to climb up and was very embarrassed and decided to get out his ale to help drown the feeling. Finally by the late evening the travelers were only an hour or so away from Dragon Mountain. They had decided to make camp and rest in the cool evening. But Minse, their guide did not. "This is as far as I go." He told them. "I cannot allow myself to step any closer to those cursed mountains. I am sorry." The others understood. No doubt the dragon raid was enough to scar any person. Karma went over to Minse and took his hand.

"Thank you, Minse." Karma said. "You got us this far, I think we can make it the rest of the way by ourselves." Minse bowed over Karma's hand.

"It was my pleasure." He said. "But a little advise if I may?" He cleared his throat. "Don't go up the mountain. You must go to Dragon Alley. That is where you find the dragons who guard the mountain's entrance." Karma nodded and thanked the young man again. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Creator. I do hope you are able to reason with beast and stop these awful attacks."

"I'll do my best." Karma said truthfully. Minse nodded at that and rode off into the evening. When he was gone, Karma turned back to her group. "To Dragon Alley then." She told them.

"I suppose so." Dagner said taking a swig from his canteen and gave a hiccup.

"I think you've had enough." Jason said leaning back again his saddle bag.

"Unsinn!"*1 Said the dwarf and took another swig of ale. Everyone laughed. If anyone could lighten any mood, it was Dagner. Karma settled herself near Jason as she set up for the night. She leaned back and looked up at the empty sky. Again she noticed the lack of stars in the night sky.

"So," Jason said drawing Karma away from her thoughts. "How do you plan on convincing the dragons to stop raiding the villages?" Karma sat up to see that everyone was looking at her for an answer.

"Well I hoping to get to the bottom of what is making them raid the villages in the first place," Karma said. "Then hoping that I can fix whatever that is needed to be fix in order to have them stop... all this considering they don't roast us when we enter their territory."

"Right," Jason said. "And use us for a barbeque grill out." Karma smiled at that and the others stared at one another in confusion. Another Otherworld term.

"Well we better rest up." Omar told them. "We have to wake up earlier so we can beat the sun. There also no stopping a dragon raid if it's too hot to travel." The others agreed and settled in for the night. As Karma laid there looking up at the sky, she couldn't help but a feeling of dread come over her. This was it. She was going to finally meet the dragons of her world and hopefully bring an end to this crazy miss.

----

They set off before dawn that next morning to bet the desert sun and by mid-morning they had reached Dragon Mountain. The mountain loamed over the travelers threatening. When you looked up, it almost looked like the mountain would fall and crush you. But thankfully, it never did. The mountain base was surrounded by trees and bushes that gave the weary travelers cover from the baking sun. They worked their way around the mountain for several more hours until they reach the other side that led them to Dragon Alley.

Dragon Alley was a long narrow field between the mountain itself and Umber Forest. The field was vacant of any life except for the yellow grass that grew there. The travelers stopped short of the Alley wondering if they should enter. Karma was the first to enter. She knew that she had to do this, for the peace of her world and to see what goes on in the world of dragons. Taking in a deep breath, she kicked the hormel gently in the side and went forth into what was technically dragon territory. The others followed in suit. No one talked, not even a whispered. They feared that they would be heard by the scaly beast and be killed on the spot. The further Karma and the others entered, the more she began to see why this was called Dragon Alley. Dragon bones scattered endlessly thought the narrow field.

And the closer Karma looked at these bones, the more she saw that not every one of these looked the same. How could there be different types of bones if every dragon is the same? She wondered as they continued onwards. The deeper they got, the more nervous the hormels got. They snorted and whined more frequently, and often times stopped in their tracks and pawed at the ground. But no matter how nervous or stubborn the hormels got, the travelers hadn't come in contract with a dragon. After what seemed like hours, the travelers finally came the end of the Alley. The narrowed field ended at a tall round wall that they could only assume be the mountain. The wall rounded off into Umber Forest and ended to who knows where. Karma and others stopped near the wall, wondering.

"Okaaay," Jason said looking up and around the mountain. "So we've reached a dead end...now what?" Karma opened her mouth to speak but was quickly cut off by a roar. The hormels whined reared up as a big shadow loamed down on them. Karma was thrown off her mount and landed hard on her back. Reacting quickly, Jason jumped off his out of control hormel and ran over to make sure Karma was ok. She slowly sat up a bit dazed. Omar and Mika tried to gain control of their mounts while Dagner, much like Karma, was thrown off. The dwarf went flying into the air and landed on his back. He rolled to his feet and took out his axe.

A great big dragon swoop down and landed on the ground with a loud thump. It reared its head back and released a loud screeched at the intruders. The screech was so loud that Karma and the others had to cover their ears. Soon after the dragon was done shrieking, it drew in a breath, preparing to release its fire. Karma quickly stood up and waved her hands at the beast. "Manere!"*2 She shouted to it in dragon tongue. At this the dragon paused. It bent it's neck down towards Karma curiously. It sniffed and snorted at Karma.

"Novus,"*3 the dragon said in its tongue. "A human who knows our lingua."*4 It eyed Karma with one of its hazel eyes. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't burn you and your friends right here and now for trespassing on dragon territory."

"Et dabo vobis duo can,"*5 Karma said. "For one I am here to help you," the dragon raised his scaly eyebrow at this. "And two, I am Karma, the creator of Arula." At the mention of being the creator, the dragon snorted and reared back with a growl. The dragon then stomped down in front of Karma its red scaly nose just inches away from Karma face. Karma scrunched up her nose. Yuck, she thought. Dragon's breath.

"Probare"*6 The dragon growled. "Anyone can claim to be the Creator." Karma, never taking her eyes off the dragon, reaching inside of her satchel, pulled out her red book with black edging and a dragon imprinted on it. She showed it to the beast. The dragon sniffed the book and shook his massive head. He took a few steps back and bowed his head to Karma. "Ignosce me*7, Creator," he suddenly said. "But you must under that we dragons are on princeps erecti."*8

"Hight alert?" Karma asked. "Quare?"*9

"Why don't I just show you." The dragon said walking over to the mountain and moved aside a bundle of bushes which revealed a path up to the mountains. "We've been waiting a long time for your arrival."

••••
*1 "unsinn" ~ "nonsense"
*2 "manere" ~ "wait"
*3 "novus" ~ "interesting"
*4 "lingua" ~ "tongue"
*5 "et dabo vobis duo can" ~ "I can give you too"
*6 "probare" ~ "prove it"
*7 "Ignosce me" ~ "forgive me"
*8 "princeps erecti" ~ "high alert"
*9 "quare" ~ "why"